Get Personal. It Pays.

Five years ago you most probably did not imagine that today millions of people would be walking around with the power of the iPhone in their pocket. Now we are to have the iPad. What will be next?

Think five short years into the future. You log on to your trusted information source. Yes, ‘your' personal source with news, entertainment, stocks - and advertising - delivered to you in the format you want, on the device of your choice, at any time, anywhere. Not only that, it is exactly the information that you wanted to receive. Time is money. You …

The Audacity of "Nope"

Pick up a newspaper. Today's word factory publishes paragraphs like these:

"According to the press release from Zerstorer Inc., 'We are fully compliant based on the audit conducted.' "
"In a statement released by Press Secretary Obfusman, 'The prime minister is away on a fishing holiday but wants to reassure citizens on this matter.' "
"Speaking from a prepared statement, Goalie Menteur said, 'Regarding the events of the past few weeks, I have put them behind me and will move forward. I ask that you respect my privacy.' "
"While Senator Ladro was unavailable for comment, his office reassured us …

Thanks, but I'll stay on the stagecoach

My fiancé and I recently moved from St. Paul to the Los Angeles area for her job. We had a leisurely drive across the country, stopping to hike in the Grand Canyon, but still somehow managed to arrive a full week before our moving truck. That meant camping out in our own apartment with an air mattress and paper plates. Well, at least we'd brought out laptops along in the car, so we'd have internet access, right? Wrong-Verizon fumbled the order and it would be a week before they could have a guy come out to hook up the DSL. …

Newspapers - in a Funny Old World

Turning Content Into Cash

I have just returned from Hyderabad, India, where I attended the WAN-Ifra World Congress and Editor's Forum .

Mark Hollands from the Pacific Area News Media Publishers Association in Australia made me smile when he shared a text message that he had received during the event; it read: "It's a funny old world when the "Ah Ha!" moment of a conference is when someone suggests that they should charge - yes money - for their product."

The value of online content was a recurring theme.

The move toward paid content online has started for real. Rupert …

Can the Fosbury Flop inspire newspapers to make it better?

In October 1968, with The Beatles' Hey Jude topping the charts, Dick Fosbury topped the Olympic field in Mexico City where he took the gold medal and set a new Olympic record at 2.24 meters (7 feet 4.25 inches). I'm fairly sure that Dick wasn't the 5th Beatle but there is a common thread that I never saw until last week. Let me explain. While in Liverpool for Outlook 2010: INMA-OPA Europe Conference , I expected to hear about The Beatles and I wasn't disappointed. I got the full Fab Four immersion between visits to The Beatles Story museum and …

Proven wrong about the cloud

I have always said that I know three things to be true, so with my apologies to William H. Macy :

1) Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone,
2) There is no difference between Good Flan and Bad Flan, and,
3) You cannot run Adobe Creative Suite apps remotely.

Turns out I was wrong on the last one.

It is a mistake that can easily be forgiven. Let me explain why I was previously convinced of that fact.

For many years DTI (and to be fair, our competitors as well) struggled with the concept of how to handle remote users. Rich …

While Asia newspaper readership grows, with it grows journalistic responsibility.

Many of today's business leaders, not only in the media, are experiencing a frightening loss of control. Seemingly stable businesses collapse while recently unknown companies challenge entire industries.

Printed newspapers have lost the majority of classified advertising to ‘upstart' online classified sites - much as free newspapers ‘stole' classified ads under the noses of their more expensive paid-for rivals, before building the significant circulations that enabled them to successfully compete for display ads. Traditional paid-for newspapers then acquired their free competitors - just as today they are acquiring, as well as launching their own Web sites. It reminds me of …

Before the good times return, focus on newsmedia, CRM, content values, new marketing, and audience engagement beyond journalism

I have in front of me three strategic priority lists from:

- One of North America's leading media companies.
- One of Europe's leading media companies.
- The INMA Board of Directors for 2010.

Everybody seems to be circling around a few key themes, so let me bring them together in one location.

The "how" of newsmedia: First, INMA changed its name two years ago from "newspaper" to "newsmedia" and explained to the world why this was necessary for us and the companies we serve. We spent 2009 explaining what a multi-platform newsmedia company might look like. In 2010, we …

Does Loyalty come with rewards?

How do you treat your most loyal subscribers? Do the customers that have been with you more than 8 years have any additional benefits over those that just started 6 months ago?

As a frequent flyer, I look forward to the occasional upgrade to first class and the option to select an aisle seat for free to ensure a more comfortable ride. I am extremely pleased with the free flights and hotel stays associated with the hotel and airline programs.

Does your newspaper offer special rewards for the most loyal customers, free access to online content, free access to achieves, …

There ought to be a law...

(or "Why investigative journalism needs to step up...")

Last week, my buddy Aaron and I went through a rite of passage in Utah called the Concealed Weapons Carry permit class at Rangemasters right down the street from the mother ship . They ran a fabulous class and in the shameless hope of getting free range time, I will be happy to recommend this course to anyone. After 4 hours of safety indoctrination, fingerprints and prison mugshots, Aaron and I are now certified by the great state of Utah to stick a nine-mil in our sweat pants and feel superior to …

What's in a Name?

I gave my children traditional first names as a middle name. I wanted something unique and individualistic, something that wouldn't damage their self-image or be downright disturbing-think "Blanket Jackson", Michael's bundle of joy, or " Diva Thin Muffin" , child of moniker-destroying Frank Zappa.

I developed my child-naming theory so that they could be recognized by their name-hopefully on a law degree, as a publisher's sweepstakes winner, as a multiplatinum recording artist, etc. - without being singled out because of it.

So, I picked out six great first names and gave them to my three children.

Fast forward 20 years... …

Full Contact Politics

I love community dialog, but I have to admit that I am concerned about the direction of public discourse since the advent of free-for-all talkback forums. A brief review of talkback from any site (my personal favorite: www.sltrib.com ), will reveal a sad truth... lots of people are talking, few are listening.

This can create an interesting problem (opportunity) for sites looking to build audience and increase time on site, as it seems to draw in people who only want to shout rather than discuss.

Before we can find a solution to this problem, we need to identify the source. …

Can E-Reader Devices Bridge the Gap Between Print & Web?

Now that Detroit dropped home delivery down to 3 days a week and Seattle Post-Intelligencer will go 100% web-only in 60 days if the paper doesn't find a new owner, should we be looking seriously at e- Reader devices such as Amazon's Kindle and Plastic Logic's 8.5" X 11" version. Can these e-Reader devices bridge the gap between print and web? What type of person will use the e-Reader device?

I'm currently a hybrid subscriber and that works well for me as a person that travels. I receive my paper electronically 6 days a week and receive a printed product …

With a little help from our friends

I am often pleased and surprised by the helpfulness, enthusiasm and ingenuity of our customers. This week's laurels go to Micky Hulse, ace web chap from the Register Guard . I was in Nigeria a few weeks ago (more of that in later issues) with a dreadful internet connection and a lack of time. I was a bit stuck as my favourite image gallery (SmoothGallery) didn't work with jQuery that was already being used for the web templates. I fired off a quick email (actually it took ages to send but I don't want to spoil the narrative flow) and …

Oh no, they didn't!

Village Voice is one of the great iconoclastic news outlets today. They made their mark covering the news stories that other more reputable publications felt were not "fit to print." One look at the photo essay on the "Idiotarod" (no that is not a misspelling), tells you all you need to know about the fun that group has.

Well, looks like they got their hands caught in the cookie jar when it comes to padding their online usage stats.

Ed Kohler from thedeets.com , just broke the story about two Digg users who have been systematically "Digg-ing" front page articles …

If it's Tuesday, this must be Poughkeepsie (You're not in Kansas anymore when the road kill is possum)

Traveling through this great nation is nothing less than an exciting adventure. From sea to shining sea, the United States is a brilliant array of wide-open skies, wide-open spaces and wide-open opinions.

From the laid-back approach of the West, and the fast-paced style in the East, America provides us with choices rich and diverse enough to satisfy any appetite. Sky-scraping structures, small-town football games, a corner market and beachfront huts give each area a unique sense of culture and history.

For all this country's vast diversity, however, sometimes it all looks the same. A recent road-trip has allowed me to …

Guilty Pleasures: Computer Books get Computerised

I was in Provo Utah a few weekends ago (too sore to tie a plank to my feet & jump off a mountain again) and found myself in the computer section of a rather pleasant bookshop complete with on site coffee - heaven for this road warrior.

The problem I always have is what to buy, especially considering the luggage weight limit when I have to fly home! When it comes to reference books, I have found that you never really know if they are any good until you have finished them. So far I have learnt to avoid those …

"It Sucks to be Me..."

The Rocky Mountain News closed after 150 years of printing some excellent fishwrap. I won't go into a diatribe about what it means to us. I am a firm believer that there is a light at the end of this tunnel and we just have to survive long enough (months not years) before we get there.

But I was drawn to an excellent piece of journalism in the Columbia Journalism Review, " Rocky Mountain, Bye "

Rather than give their own spin on the events, the CJR allowed individual staffers the chance to express what it meant to them personally. …

Audience-centric model driving newspaper transformation

As a former newspaper publisher, I can empathize when a newspaper's bad news is on their own front page. "Bankruptcy filings", "Revenues down", "Classifieds dying". Amid all the economic doom and gloom, the plight of newspapers seems to have a special ironic place in the news. When you go behind the headlines, too much debt from highly leveraged acquisitions is the root cause. Beyond the balance sheet, we have been slow as an industry to change business models and business processes to adapt to online opportunities.

Newspapers' process-centric approach is understandable. Producing a unique daily product requires a precisely choreographed …

Inventing the Cardboard box

Act I: The World is my Oyster

I play World of Warcraft . I am not a hardcore player, but I enjoy the game (If you thought, "Armory Link, Please," here it is ). As much as I enjoy the game, I enjoy the forum sites that discuss the game. For those of you who think, "How weird is that," may I remind you that most of us here are involved in the news industry that makes its money analyzing whatever it can find .

Part of the reason I love the forums is to find out how different people …

A Few Good Customers

Sitting here, waiting for the doors to open on the final day of Nexpo... oops, sorry, mediaXchange , I am reminded of the words from A League of their Own when Jimmy Dugan sarcastically tells the team, "Let's get out there... dozens of people are waiting to see you play..."

Crowds here are so sparse that vendors outnumber buyers 40 to 1 based on the informal survey conducted by a content vendor who was willing to buy a yacht for anyone willing to sit and listen to his pitch (actual ratio of vendor to customers is not yet published). The …

Le Tour de France

A huge marketing extravaganza

In my last posting I reported that I had heard at a WAN conference that those newspapers reporting increases in circulation were focused on high quality content - and marketing.

Yesterday the Tour de France travelled through the village in which I am fortunate enough to live - on the stage from Le Cap D'Agde to Perpignan. The riders are preceded by ‘le caravane' - a flotilla of sponsor vehicles that ‘entertain' the crowd gathered along the route. I realized that they were all from B2C companies, providing such essentials as washing powder, telecommunications, food and …

Cost cutting, wrist slitting or a new direction?

Transforming the business model

It is clear that media companies need to reduce costs to cope with the drastic declines in advertising revenue. Worse yet I read about newspapers getting rid of all of their graphic designers, nearly eliminating their copy editors and telling the reporters to copy edit their own stories, and slashing their news staffs .

How can you cut out the most essential ingredients of quality news gathering and expect to have a product readers will still want?

I read about some companies deciding to modularize and standardize their editorial layouts, so they can use the same …

Talkin bout my demographic

When I first heard The Who 's song My Generation in 1970 on the Live at Leeds album, I knew they were was really talking to ME about MY generation. Pete Townsend's lyrics were an anthem about youthful rebellion and defiance of the older generation. The line "Hope I die before I get old!" has a whole different meaning when you think you're immortal. What teenager couldn't relate? So, let's fast forward almost 40 years and I find that my own teenage son completely embraces the message of My Generation as his own. It gave me this strange feeling of …

How Mine Magazine lost me on Highway 101

I got Mine but it wasn't all about me. Let me explain. A few weeks ago I posted a blog " Sushi pizza for an audience of one " where I wrote about signing up for a free, personalized MINE Magazine subscription. dqjm2raeyw I qualified to receive 5 issues of a Lexus-sponsored semi-custom magazine with content from Sports Illustrated , Golf , Money , Time , Travel + Leisure , InStyle , Food & Wine and RealSimple .

I receiveddqjm2raeyw my first issue in the mail - just a day after a personalized email of apology from Wayne Powers the …

Why did I visit that new car showroom?

Advertising - the food sustaining news media. Or is it?

Despite the recession, according to Forrester Research , online advertising is growing , yet I constantly hear that newspapers - and I guess the same goes for magazines - are financially struggling because they are losing the battle for advertising with (lower-cost) targeted online publications.

'Struggling' does not necessarily mean 'not making profits' - many businesses might be very content with the margins still being made by many news media organizations.

Chicken Not Egg

Newspapers are losing print advertisers because they are losing circulation (and also because advertisers these days …

Management by Apathy

Gift cards are great! Last week, my parents sent me a gift card to the local hardware superstore which meant I could get whatever I wanted. In this case, I was able to get a brand new circular saw with laser guides. All that was left was to check out and take my new weapon of messy destruction home.

But I found myself behind Smart Shopper. She had found the dented paint can bucket and was buying a couple gallons of her favorite color marked down 40% (because as we all know, if the paint can is dented, the paint …

Content is King in the South of France

Although I buy the local paper, as a Brit living in France I enjoy reading English language, preferably British, newspapers. My French still isn't nearly as good as it needs to be, but thankfully I can buy 'newspapers from home' a short walk from my house, even though the village in which I live has only three thousand inhabitants of which less than two percent are English speakers. How's that for customer service!

The community also has the benefit of fibre-optic high-speed Internet access linking its residents to the rest of the world. News is available online 24/7, in any …

When is the last time you had a great customer experience?

My most recent exceptional customer experience happened at a local Starbucks. It all started about one and a half years ago, when the lady working in the pick-up window asked me for my name. I was pleasantly surprised when she greeted me with, Hello, Dana," the very next time I went to that pick-up window. I thought to myself, "This lady is good." This continued for about a month.

Then one day, as I was ordering my cappuccino through that strange contraption that you talk to with the microphone and tinny speaker -- wondering if anyone was looking at me, …

Channeling Zig Zigler and tuning in to WIIFM

Remember Zig Ziglar's infamous radio station WIIFM: "What's In It For Me" ? I learned about it during a crazy time in my life when I wondered if I could be successful outside of the newspaper industry. The answer was "Yes, I could, but why even try?" I left and returned. During my stint on the "outside", I was subjected to Zig Zigler's intense sales training program. I periodically still have WIIFM and Green Eggs and Ham flashbacks! I'm putting on my sales hat for this entry - this is one of those WIIFM moments.

Professional Services has been providing …

5 Ways to Re-Energize your Advertising Sales

I point out each month in the newsletter that DTI is more than just software. My area, Professional Services, is devoted to supporting your operation after go live. There is a wealth of knowledge under our roof. If we counted up the years of experience in publishing and The Web (long gone are the days of being "New Media"), we would hit the century mark with nearly every four-five people we counted.

We all know many people who have logged decades on their newspaper career tally sheet. Sometimes, as an industry, we are slow to change. But the world is …

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune?

To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them.
Shakespeare: Hamlet, Act 111, Scene 1

Outrageous fortune, a sea of troubles - or a golden opportunity? The Internet means different things to different people and media organizations. It is clear that we won't end it by opposing it.

It was also clear however from listening to several of the speakers at the recent World Association of Newspapers advertising conference in …

Where were you when Michael Jackson died?

I was as sorry as the next person to learn that the King of Pop was gone but I found the news cycle to be fascinating. I was on a chartered bus in Washington, D.C. heading to a DTI-sponsored cruise on the Potomac. The sad news spread rapidly among the newspaper crowd who had come to DC for the Individuated News Conference . Tara McMeekin, the Editor of Newspapers & Technology , got the scoop in a text message from her teenage niece. Ever the skeptical journalist, Tara waited until the news was corroborated. It was verified in a matter …

Just Keep Swimming

Just Keep Swimming

Just Keep Swimming

Dory's (Finding Nemo) unsinkable "we'll get through it" attitude creates a mantra that all of us - young and old, in both our personal and professional lives can adopt.

My grown daughter was reciting this in Spanish the other day. She's learning Spanish to better assist her clients with her job.

I found myself reciting this out loud, mimicking Dory's sing-song-y voice a few weeks ago too. I was in a 4-wheel drive in Canyonlands National Park, heading to Peekaboo parking area for a weeklong backpacking trip with a cousin that I'd never met …

The Hills Are Alive With the Sound of Tweeting

Tweets - Facr or Opinion?

Tweets are good. They can amuse, inform, and even improve social lives. But we should not always assume that what we read in a Tweet - or anywhere else for that matter - is fact. Many Tweets are opinions only. We all have opinions. That's what makes discussion and debate interesting. Columnists have opinions too - and so do newspaper proprietors.

News journalists however are meant to state only the facts. There is no such restriction for Tweeters.

Some have described Social media or ‘user generated content' as being less biased - even more truthful …